Lennie,
I think that most builders are still novices (even though we like to think we know what we're doing). Most still make mistakes. From what I understand, with each boat under your belt, you'll make less obvious errors and will be better prepared to hide the major screw-ups. It's true that most admirer's don't see these mistakes and I think that's because they can't even imagine building one of these (it's hard for them to comprehend) so they look at the kayak as a whole, not with a magnifying glass. Other boat builders will see your errors, but won't point them out (out of respect) and would rather you not see their screw-ups. Being here on the west coast, I still have only seen one perfect kayak (or as close to perfect as humanly possible) and it's Joe Greenly's King. Now that's impressive. It doesn't even resemble a home built kayak. Looks manufactured, somehow. Truely gorgeous. But, that's at the level that only true professionals could produce. Find out how many boats Joe's built, and I think you'll have your answer. On the other hand, if you enjoy building boats, even with a few flaws, but they paddle great, and you're not affraid to scratch 'em up, who would need anything more than that? Make sense? Just keep plugging away, I know that I will, and I'll share my experiences both good and bad (just promise not to look too close ).
Smf